Persian Strategy

r0ck

Chieftain
Joined
Dec 3, 2002
Messages
69
Location
Montreal
Hello guys.

me: I am r0ck and i have a problem
guys: Hello, r0ck :-)


The thing is that ive been playing Civ family games since... let m see... 1994, and have played every single version of it till the bitter end ( okey, maybe not Call to power)

Id like to post here a little compendium about my very personal taste, very specific play style:

Civilization: The persians
Dificulty: Regent or Monarch
Terrain: Any, but preferrably pangea
Special: Mass regicide, ptw


Quick intro: The persians get the fastest hard-hitter unit in the game (imortals), with statistics of 4/2/1 from the very first technology researchable wich is iron working (beeing scientific neats you bronze working from the start). Also, by doing mass-regicide , you get 6 "scouts" in the start of the game, wich will prove invaluable in the later efforts. The computer doesnt handle the king units very well :-)

1- Knoweth thine strenghts:
First, you are industrious and scientific, wich neats you one extra shield on the core of your towns and two in your metropolises. Also, your workers do their jobs faster. Then you get scientific improvements cheaper and extra techs.

Before setting up persepolis, id suggest you to move each one of your king units to one of your directions. One up, one upper right, onle right, one down right, one down, other down left, other left, other upper left. With that, you get to see a large part of the map. Dont set up persepolis over bonus grassland. You´ll want to use normal grassland instead, so you can benefit from the industrial bonus. You may think it is a small benefit, but carefull observation can be the one thing that divides the winner from the loser.

When you build your city, set the first round of warriors, just for a quick defensive suport, and set your "selves" (the king unitses) in a exploration spree. The first one that hits a coast, return him to persepolis and keep him safe. As long as this one is safe, your kingdon will be yours.

Pop as many goody huts as you can. Try to do the popping with your starting move, so that you can flee in case you pop a hostile-barbarian hut.

Before building your second city, try hitting control-g and seting it on a 5 square radius from capitol, and do the same to the next 3 cities you build; try also to respect the "normal grassland setup" rule. Therefore, youll wont overlap any blocks nor lose the initial industrial bonus.

AS your workers are fast, 3 workers can buld a net between 5 cities very fast. another worker for every city is required as you build de outer "city rings" wich, in an perfect build would encompass 12 - 35 cities in the most productive (less corrupted) main square.

Try to build a road network linking the cities asap. any luxuries engulfed on his efforts are appreciated, but not demanded. YOur roads are to take your powerfull armies across your glorious nation :-)


Units
Lets talk about the immortals.

They are the shock troops from hell untill the development of gunpowder. They are around for about 150 turns, and during this time they really shine. The one nation that can counter an wave of imortalls is the iroquis an they mounted warriors (bigger attack than immies defens and can flee from the counterstrike)

You need iron to build this pests. Thats the sinlge only difficulty. If you find yourself in an continent without iron, you may as well as resign or you will be licking boots for the rest of the game. the Ia will ensure that.

Also, you will rejoice everytime your little "selves" pop a warrior hut. Every warrior will be upgraded to an immie as soon as you can link the preciousss ironn to your net.

As the core of your forces are infantry, you will benefit from using artillery. In the case, catapults. I usually have an invading force that ranges to 10-20 arties, 40 Immies (usually conscript, upgraded from the warrior huts) and 3-4 spearmen (they deal better mounted units, wich are your bane).

I´ve spent several whole games without getting one single great leader, even triggering my golden age on a glorious elite immortal vs arabic king (1 health) once, but only once in a while i got leaders. If you get leaders on the begining of the game, build a immortal army, use it to trample something and built an military academy and an heroic epic (the heroic epic, the tale from gilgamesh, has acctually been written in persian lands)

Things that will help you : Art of War, Heroic Epic
Second better friend ever : feudalism (allows art of war, allows building of pike-fellows, aka raw-horsey-eaters)


Government

You will want to switch from despotism to republic at least, as soon as possible. Your workers get even faster under republic or democracy and extra fast with repl parts (replaceable parts also ends the ruling and the use of immies on the battlefieeld)

Things that will help you : Art of War, Heroic Epic


Never forget:
1 - ALways bombard first. Even if it takes 10 catapults to remove 1 hit point from a regular spearman defending a rat-hole, It is one less hit point that the immies will have to chew.


2 - If the AI defends a rat-hole build in the middle of nothing, in the corner of nowhere, be sure: the ai is seeing oil or uranium or saltpeter there . Special resources can be located by seeing how the ai is positioning they cities. Thats why you must have huge maps, done by your early exploring, to check your enemyes movements.


3 - Your territory must be huge so that you can trade r.o.p by valuables. Ensure that by covering the map with the shining - green ooze that is your civilization (persians are that light green that is akin to greece but diferent from aztecs.

4 - Your enemies ride horses. Dny the ai access to anything on four legs. Dogs, cats, ponnies, nothing can be used by the enemy. If you allow a mongolian ai to build up 7 thousand keshyks, youll be hitting the dust in no time. Therefore, backstab, pillage, scout-block, anything will do. Protect yourself from the horser-beasts !


5 - Your military is the most powerfull until the late middle ages (gunpowder). Even then, search mettalurgy and upgrade your catapults to cannons. Even if they get gun powder, 1 musketman with one hitpoint cant stop an immie.

6 - Trade horses and r.o.p for alliances against another power.
If you monopolize the "land of marlborro" (only you get the horses, i mean), the AI will sell everything but they own bodies for one patch of if.

7 - The top best wonders for you should be the piramids and the sun-tzu. Building a great library, ill make you go GA, unless you are already on it. you will probably be popping huts faster than i can miss-spell schwarzenegger and therefore you shall be the most tech advanced civ. If you allow other civs to build G.L , you will be providing your enemies with technologies. Tihnk abou building it only as an negation of other civs powers.


Your best friends tend to be: Carthago, Korea and China. Your worse enemies will usually be U.S , russia and zululand.


Well guys, thats it. Thats how i play. Hope you enjoyed the reading and tnx for the attention.
 
hmmmmm
 
seems a bit specific to me. maybe you had one game like this, eh?
You just can't tell which civs will be enemies and which will be friends... Other than that, you're mostly right about the persians, though the greek hoplites can be hard to chew for immortals
 
well.. if you use "culturally linked starting location" and read about the etnical groups association, you will see why i said those will be your friends


also, cultures that divide the same traits tend to be more polite towards each other .



today, if you start a game as persia , with culturally linked start location, you will always border arabia, for exemple
 
Originally posted by r0ck
well.. if you use "culturally linked starting location" and read about the etnical groups association, you will see why i said those will be your friends

I looked all over the place for "etnical groups association"
Where did you read it from?
 
hello... sorry for the delay.


on the manual, under civilization relations, you can read an paragraph where it implies that simliar cultures tend to get along better... therefore, americans and aztecs could get along better, than aztecs and zulus, or egyptians and japanese.
 
Back
Top Bottom